Monday, October 15, 2012

Fan Apathy Setting In?

1) There is genuine fear emanating from the NHL offices these days. The 2012-2013 season was set to kick off this past weekend and for the most part the loss of NHL games was met with little to no 'fan' fare at all. The NHL at this stage of their season has enough trouble gaining traction in the US up against MLB playoffs, the NFL season and the NBA getting geared up. So few, other than fanatic die hards (mostly bloggers), took real notice of what was 'missing' this weekend. You can bet your dollar (or tens of millions of them) that the suits in NYC/Toronto were!

2) Meanwhile hundreds of the players, have secured employment elsewhere. Either in the various European leagues, the AHL, or back to junior. Several pro-NHL hack columnists have taken shots at the players for either 'abandoning' the CBA process, or for 'taking jobs' from other players. Of course both arguments are total crap. No one forced Euro teams into taking NHL talent. They simply want to sell tickets, and the best players get the biggest audience. AS for abandoning the CBA process, that's so absurd its not worth responding to. As we wrote in response to 'Douche' Damien Cox's such assertion, how come no one asks why all 30 owners aren't sitting in on the discussions as well? Only the select hardliners are consistently in the room with the Fehrs.

3) All this makes me feel fairly confident that at some point one of those 30 (no show) owners will step up and be the contrarian voice against the Bettman led minority cabal. The bad news is that it will probably NOT be in time to save the season. For we have also exclusively been told that the NHL will announce later this week that they have set a deadline, or drop dead date of December 1st. If there is no new CBA by then, the season is toast. Of course its likely that this announcement will be met with a similar response to the missed opening weekend garnered, silence and apathy.